home generators
I'm looking at emergency home generators. Any suggestions? don't really need one that will power my entire house, just a couple of essencial items, fridge (on an on/off basis), couple off low wattage lights, tv, etc.
Anyone on the forum with good luck with a particular model?
Thanks in advance.
Anyone on the forum with good luck with a particular model?
Thanks in advance.
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Honda makes great generators in multiple sizes.
My inlaws have a Generac whole house generator. It automatically fires up when the power goes down. It's awful nice!0 -
Just make sure you have a switch that will not allow some bad voltage to go through your system. For example, ours put 420 through both houses its on. There weren't many things left working. We put a switch on the main poll for all the buildings and a voltmeter on the generator. 0 -
This is where I bought my Generac 5500.
http://www.electricgeneratorstore.com/0 -
I was looking at a home depot paper and they had some big generacs in it. 0 -
...Click on "search" in general discussion and type in "generator". All kinds of threads on the subject. 0 -
Bought my Honda tri-fuel at Northern Tool. Happy as heck all around (after I got over the sticker shock). Had a problem with it and they took care of it locally, even though it was out of warranty. Hooked into the main breaker, with a cut out switch and can select what to run, at the panel. It was a lifesaver when we had an ice storm 2yrs ago and were without power for 3 days. Ran it off the natural gas.
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/category2_6970_360 -
You can wire up pretty much any electric start generator to be an emergency back up generator "it will turn on if the power goes out" any good electrician should be able to set it up for you, also I have to agree Honda makes a nice quite long running generator we have owned about 4 or 5 different brand generators from big to small the one that still runs is the Honda, the others still work but no where near as well.
Before you have anything make them start it up for you, unless noise isn't a concern, some of those generators are REALLY REALLY LOUD when there's no need for them to be.
Note, when we first bought our property we had no power and stayed in a camper, the generator ran all night or until it ran out of gas Honda was the only one that made it the full night out of the 3 we had. Ran the generator to run the heaters fan and a few other things like refrigerator etc.0 -
Northern used to carry co-generators...(runs off propane or natural gas) No moving parts! Silent! If you harness the heat from it you can double the benefit.. 0 -
One note, don't buy from nothern they don't back there items at all, we bought a generator from them and it was wired wrong started it up the first time and it fried all the wiring took it back and they wouldent exchange it or take it for return.
Ended up having to re-wire it correctly ourselves.0 -
found this nice little john deere generator on that site for $52,000. 
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IF all you need is a couple thousand watts... I have a 2500 watt inverter. Use my deep cycle batteries from my bass boat. Will run fridge, deepfreeze, and does not have gasoline dry up in the carb from sitting in garage for 3 years. No carbon monoxide. The inverter is a Cherokee Titanium- picked it up for $75 on Flea-bay. Can recharge batteries with a jumper cable and my truck. Took us thru 8 days of no power after Hurricane Isabel. Keep a small 300 watt inverter in the Jeep to recharge laptop, cell phone, etc. 0 -
11 has a good suggestion.
I've got a 2500 Watt Honda that I use for a lot of different stuff. I've had it about 15 years and can't praise it enough.
It is almost absolutely silent.
Doug0 -
11 has a good suggestion.
I've got a 2500 Watt Honda that I use for a lot of different stuff. I've had it about 15 years and can't praise it enough.
It is almost absolutely silent.
Doug0 -
Been in the generator business for a good while
Generac = Junk Their warranty really sucks, especially7 on their home standby machines.
Buyer beware!
For what it sounds like you are wanting to use it for, get you a Honda and be happy.0 -
Have to agree....get a Honda! ghs 0 -
I bought a generator from Northern and was quite happy with it. It was the 8000 watt with a pull start Honda 13 horse motor, the Northern brand generator.
I needed such a big generator because it takes 7,500 watts to start my well pump.
It really was a beautiful machine, and easy to start. It was the gasoline model.
After five years, I sold it to buy a deer rifle and scope. I never had used the generator in all that time.
The one drawback was that this was a gasoline generator. Let me tell you, it is a real pain to store gasoline. I had 4 of the 5 gallon plastic gas cans. Gasoline will not store for more than a year. You have to put fuel stabilizer in it to make it last over a year or so. Well, I did that, and I would just change the gas out every two years. I would just pour it into the truck over a two week period in December. Then I would refill the cans and add fuel stabilizer. You want to get winter mixed gasoline, it keeps better than the summer blend.
Anyway, I had 20 gallons of gas in my shed, and was always paranoid that something would happen to cause my shed to burn down.
Next generator I get will be the dual fuel, that runs on propane or gasoline. I have a 500 gallon propane tank here, which I use for heat, hot water, and cooking. Propane is so easy to store. It will store for an indefinite period, so, if you don't have a propane tank, you could buy one of the smaller tanks just for the generator.
I would buy another generator from Northern in a minute. I have bought quite a bit of stuff from them and always gotten good service.0 -
How quiet are the Generac's? Home Depot is advertising a 13KW installed for $4395. 16KW for $4895 installed. What do they run on? Propane would work well for me. 0 -
Honda EU 3000 is a good one: http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/eu3000.htm 0
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